where a levee is on the brink of collapse right now in that state. people who live nearby have been advised to leave before they end up with no way out. rob marciano is is watching all of that and another potentially dangerous storm along the east coast, as well. bishop eddie long under fire and firing back from the pulpit. the mega church pastor speaking out against allegations he coerced four young men into having sex with him. cnn's martin savage is following developments. also a pilot making a heart-stopping emergency landing at jfk over the weekend after the landing gear failed bringing 64 people in without a scratch on them. it was caught on tape from inside the plane. we'll have an exclusive interview with two passengers from the site. and the a.m. fix blog is up and running. go to cnn.com/amfix. emergency crews fearing the total failure of a levee in

wisconsin. it's located along the wisconsin river just south of portage. emergency officials told about 150 residents to get out yesterday. >> the water already filling up some homes. and this may be only the beginning. >> our rob marciano is in our extreme weather center tracking all of this for us this morning. so are they still in a situation where the waters are still rising now? >> no, the river at least at portage did crest last night. but it's going to remain above flood stage for quite some time. not only across wisconsin, but southern and central parts of minnesota. we've got all these rivers that are actually draining into the mississippi. and we're going to see some issues, i think, downstream from there, as well. so that's issue number one. issue number two is -- more immediate concerns, what's going on in portage. here's where the river crested. the record is is 20.5 feet. it crested just above that last

night. and now it's at about 20.2 feet. we're at near record strange. major flood stage, but not expected to come back down below flood stage really until late wednesday into thursday. so we've got quite some time before this river really gets below the danger zone. and what i mean by danger zone is, well, usually after a river crests, we can relax, but because of this situation where you have all of that pressure on this very, very old and quite frankly not well designed or built levee back in the late 1800s you've got pressure on this until it goes below flood stage. the next three days are what these officials are concerned about. and they're talking about scary situations. and they don't really know what will happen if this levee fails. that's the scariest thing. all right, good news for wisconsin and minnesota, the rains are gone, but they have moved to the east coast. and we have our own flooding situation from georgia through the carolinas up through the northeast. this particular storm system getting pretty potent with not only rain but thunderstorms, as

well. we'll talk more about that and what's going on in the tropics later on in the program. back to you guys in new york. >> thanks so much. >> you bet. frightening moments for passengers aboard a delta airlines flight this week. all of it caught on tape from inside the plane. the pilot had to make an emergency landing because the plane's landing gear was stuck. the passenger on board shot cell phone video as the plane was touching down. look and listen to how this all played out. >> it's down! stay down! heads down! stay down! heads down! stay down! >> sparks flying with 3,000 gallons of fuel inside those wings as the wing tips scraped the runway. 64 people on that plane. everyone okay. and they were pretty happy about the whole thing. listen to this -- >> stay down! >> listen cheering at the end when they realized we're on the ground and we're safe. >> it's interesting because the two people we're going to be

speaking to were obviously not listening to the mantra of the flight attendant. >> well -- >> well, anyway, all's well that ends well. we're going to have video and their amazing story to go along with it. now a pastor at the center of a growing sex scandal. eddie long addressing the faithful for the first time publicly since he was accused of coercing young church members into a sexual relationship with him. >> he says he's not a perfect man, but he's ready for a fight. martin savage is is following developments for us live in atlanta today. good morning, martin. >> good morning, john, good morning, kiran. he had issued denials through his attorneys and spokespersons, but this was the first time he himself would be appearing in public to talk about the salacious allegations made

against him. the congregation began showing up. they were already in the parking lot at 5:30 in the morning for a service to start at 8:00. the traffic was still heavily snarled when the service got underway. and inside it was clear that once he appeared, there was a huge cheer that went up from the congregation. he came out holding hands with his wife. he was in a very good mood and he certainly wasn't going to back down. take a listen. >> i feel like david. against goliath. but i got five rocks, and i haven't thrown one yet. >> and then you see, that was him walking off. he was supposed to hold a news conference afterwards. we were all gathered to offer questions to him. he came out. he was very subdued. he only issued a statement. his attorney said he would not take any questions whatsoever. and after that he simply walked away. one of the things pointed out, though, was of course the fact that he did not during that service specifically deny the

charges that were made against him. afterwards we talked to parishioners, some of them said they felt relieved, others say, you know, they really weren't sure because he didn't specifically say he didn't do it. john and kiran? >> all right. that was interesting to note. of course, still a lot has to come out. but every week it seems there is another accuser that comes out, as well. so of course the story will continue. martin savage, thanks so much. it's six minutes past the hour. and breaking news into cnn from afghanistan. word of a nato air strike that killed 49 people over the weekend. the coalition is saying that choppers crossed into pakistani air space in pursuit of suspected insurgents. it's always a touchy issue in our partnership with pakistan and the war on terror. but we'll have more details on the attack as they come in. also new this morning, the feds are receiving new regulations for wiretaps on the internet 6789.

they claim their ability to wiretap suspects is "going dark" as people communicate more online than they do by telephone. they want congress to acquire all services that enable communications including social networking sites to be technically capable of o complying if they're ever served with a wiretap order. stephen colbert will be back in new york city after facing what may have been his toughest audience yet, congress. the comedy central host testified about conditions facing america's undocumented farm workers. there was a little bit of confuse as to whether or not he was going to be testifying as stephen colbert or whether he would be in character -- well, check out his testimony. >> picking beans, packing corn for hours on end side by side in the unforgiving sun. i have to say and i do mean this sincerely, please don't make me do this again. it is really, really hard. for one thing when you're

picking beans, you have to spend all day bending over. it turns out and i did not know this that most soil is at ground level. if we can put a man on the moon, why can't we make the earth waist high? come on. where is the funding? >> for once, there's kind of a bipartisan agreement that colbert's testimony was anything but funny. republican congressman steve king said colbert mocked the entire process and steny hoyer told wallace that colbert's bit was "not appropriate. >> i think it was an embarrassment for mr. colbert. he was -- >> well, he was called by the democratic chair of the subcommittee. >> you ask me, chris, whether the testimony was appropriate. i think it was not appropriate. >> and he should not have been called. >> well, i don't know about whether he was called, but what he had to say was not the way it should have been said. >> and i think part of the confusion is he gave written testimony, as well, that he was explaining these were difficult

jobs. these are jobs that many americans don't want to take, which is why there's so much migrant labor and there should possibly be a path way for at least working papers for the immigrants who do that. >> the whole thing was a little strange to say the least, but colbert's getting plenty of people supporting him, as well. congress says that he made a mockery of the hearing process. but other people who have stood up for colbert say congress has made a mockery of the hearing process. don't blame him. >> apparently when he tried to submit, i guess, a couple of photos of his colonoscopy to the hearing, they started getting upset. >> well, that might be a little off topic. >> he said it was on topic that americans should stop eating vegetables as part of the solution to the illegal immigrant labor. there you go. >> that's a little off topic, though. goodness, me. well, stay with us, coming up in 40 minutes, the latest news from the best team on television. mark preston will tell us what's crossing the ticker.

a decorated army reservist book on afghanistan literally trashed by the government. what has the book that has the pentagon up in arms. ways, all r? i don't want you going out on those yet. and leave your phone in your purse, i don't want you texting. >> daddy... ok! ok, here you go. be careful. >> thanks dad. >> and call me--but not while you're driving. we knew this day was coming. that's why we bought a subaru. i'm ahmed mady and i'm a homebuilder. my father brought me up to give back to society... felicia jackson promised her late sister that she would take care of her children. but she needed help. i used my american express open card to get half a million points to buy building materials to help build the jackson family a new home. well, i know if my dad was still around, he would have told me, with no doubt... he would have told me it's a no brainer and i knew that from the start.

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12 minutes past the hour. developing story right now. the pentagon buys the first 9,500 copies of an army reservist's book. the book labeled a threat to national security and thus destroyed by the pentagon. >> amazing. the pentagon claims the new memoir "operation dark heart" doesn't just reveal an officer's experiences while fighting the taliban in afghanistan, it actually gives away classified information. barbara starr joins us live from the pentagon to break down the details. not often we hear of a book being destroyed. obviously the pentagon was really worried about this. >> well, apparently they were, john and kiran, you're right. when's the last time you heard about government sanctioned book destruction? but here it is. this right here is "operation dark heart" but lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer. this is the second printing of the book, the one you can buy now. and if you open it up, you can see now it contains blacked out passages at the government's

behest. this is what the pentagon is willing to let you buy. a book with blacked out passages. what are we really talking about here? well, colonel chauffeur has seen nearly 10,000 copies of his book now destroyed. colonel shaffer says it all smacks of retaliation to him. and here's a bit more of what he's had to say about it all. >> there are some things the army felt they did not want in, and i took them out. there was no argument. if they felt it was sensitive or couldn't be referenced properly, it was out. and that was completed by january of this year. and from there, after i received written permission, the written documents went to the publisher, then we moved forward. >> written permission. so why did it all get destroyed? well, by all accounts what

colonel shavffer is saying he submitted the book to his immediate bosses, but when higher-ups here at the pentagon saw it all, they said, nope, there's still classified information in there and some of it has to come out. if you want to buy operation dark heart, you have to buy the second printing of it. the one with the blacked out passages. >> that's interesting. i just checked on the ipad to see if they had it, the original copy and they actually note this has been r changed by the defen department. how long before the original shows up there? >> people are scouring the internet, looking to see if they can buy one of those initial copies that may have escaped the military's destruction. i think you can be -- it's a safe bet to assume people are going to be looking to see how fast they can grab one of those copies. in cyber space in the 21st century, it's awfully hard to destroy information forever. john, kiran. >> one thing about the internet,

it is forever. barbara starr for us this morning, thanks. football ticket prices are up. in some cases, way up. even in this bad economy. why are you paying more? we'll break it down for you coming up. 16 minutes after the hour. tom, check this out. good gravy, bill. our insurance company doesn't have anything like it. magnificent, isn't it? with progressive, it's easy to cover all of your favorite rides. progressive has truck insurance? number one in truck and motorcycle. is that a golf cart? yep. we also cover rvs, boats, atvs. anything else i can help you with? can i take a ride? you need a ticket --

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[ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications. so they can focus on building amazing bikes. with xerox, you're ready for real business. 20 minutes past the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. time for minding your business. and this morning, we're in the baby business for that moment. our own christine romans is back. she's here with a new addition to her family. and there he is. edward arthur. he was born back on july 11th. he joins his older brother, billy's holding him right there and then the little guy, he was 2, fin, he can't stand it. he lost mommy's attention. he wasn't in the picture. >> he wasn't in the picture. if i could get all three of them

in the picture for one picture, it'd be a miracle. >> congratulations. >> thanks, kiran. >> we were remarking a second ago. she has this uncanny ability to -- she has a child and it's like you look like you were never ever pregnant. >> oh, stop. >> you were pregnant, it was just from here up. >> oh, stop. no, no -- keep going. >> you're a pro at having babies. welcome back, welcome back. >> i love it. i love being the money mommy. i love it. >> we'll be talking about this in the months to come. no question. finding a good deal on nfl tickets this season may require a well-executed defensive play. so when you take a look at what's happening across the board in the nfl. ticket prices are up about 4%, average of $76.77 now for a ticket. and you wonder in this economy? how is that being supported? >> well, it's concentrated in a few number of teams that either have had success or in the

northeast. the giants, jets, and patriots, for instance. a lot of the increase comes from those teams. and in the giants and the jets' case, they moved into a new stadium and that's part of paying for the stadium. >> the american way, debt, debt, debt. they took on a lot of debt to pay for the new stadiums during the bubble when money was cheap. now it's not so cheap and they have to pay for themselves. i wanted to show you, john, some of the highest ticket prices. $76 a ticket, that's remarkable when the average family income -- median earnings is $740 a week. take four people, that's pretty tough. you look at some of these yankees are on there, patriots are at the top, $117, the jets, giants, and cowboys. and then my hometown team the bears. >> and this doesn't take into account the psls. in order to get the right to buy the tickets. tens of thousands of dollars. there are personal seat licenses that are tens of thousands of

dollars for the rights to buy the ticket. because as christine mentioned, this occurred during this absurd sense that this growth was going to last forever. >> the giants stadium was owned by the state, but the giants and jets have put their ticket sales as collateral, right? >> yeah. the thing about football's a lot -- baseball and football are equally popular in this country. doesn't always seem so because football does such enormous ratings. but they do those tv ratings because they're -- there's 162 baseball games to 16 football games. each game is ten times as popular, so they rate ten times, as well. the flip side, if you have a new stadium and you're trying to sell tickets, there are eight home games in an nfl season, there are 81 in a baseball season. >> imagine a family of four how much that is. that's a third of your take-home pay? >> we talked about the family budget being busted -- >> but you can sit at home and see these crazy awesome graphics.

you can see -- what they can do with the computer-generated stuff on watching a football game. but you're insulted if you go to a stadium. >> you can't necessarily sit at home and see it. because if the attendance falls below -- >> the tampa bay buccaneers, the jacksonville jaguars are having a problem, not selling out their stadium so they're facing blackouts. they're trying to give people incentives to bring them in the door. here you have an embarrassment of riches in one area and then you have other teams that are starting -- >> is it like the american economy then? it's this inequity building within sports? >> you have to tell me, christine, is it? >> well, i wonder if professional sports is a reflection of that? well, i think you have the american family economics is completely changing, but you still have what looks like some of these big teams, at least, their sports economics is still bubbling economics. >> they had no choice, really, if you have to pay off that debt. >> and all depends too on performance, right? because the new orleans saints -- who was going to go

out and watch them? their average ticket price including resale $400 to get to see them. >> but if you're bulling back in your family, pull back every place else, do you still take your kids to go see the bears? >> if you live in chicago, you go see the bears, you know. talk about have no choice. it's a religion. >> well, you know, if you're a family from new york or new jersey that wants to see a football game and can't afford to get into the giants, think about maybe if you're going to florida on vacation and going to see tampa bay or jacksonville. they might pay you to show up. great to see you guys this morning. for more on the hike in the nfl prices and the news that matters most goes to cnnmoney.com. still to come, bitter campaign battles no longer fought on the air waves. now the fight for votes is in some cases taking to twitter. 24 minutes past the hour. ♪

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it's truck month. now, during truck month, get 0% apr financing on all trucks and full-size suvs like this 2011 silverado. see your local chevrolet dealer. ♪ well, you can see your opponents in 140 characters or less. instead of using twitter to get out their messages, some are using it to go on the attack and insult this election season. >> one sample tweet, how about this? coked up stimulus monkeys. enough said? jim acosta has been tracking the campaign twitter wars and joins us now. and jim, it's getting ugly out there. >> it's getting ugly, and i don't think i can sum this up in 140 characters or less. if you use twitter, you know

political campaigns are tweeting all the times these days. sometimes the tweets are positive and many times they are not. they are the latest form of attack ad and they can get personal. welcome to the world of hash tag politics. >> reporter: it was another viral moment in a vicious race. supporters of harry reid scuffling with backers of republican rival sharron angle at a candidate forum. even after tempers cooled, the fight was far from over. it had moved to twitter, where one of angle's campaign managers posted this video, the clip shows reid supporters shouting at angle, using less than 140 characters that angle staffer tweeted, check out the video of reid bots screaming and heckling. >> now you don't even need a complete sentence to change a campaign. >> just less than 140 characters. >> less than 140 characters.

you can even tweet a phrase and it can change a campaign. >> first, harry reid votes to give special tax breaks -- >> reporter: these days, attack tweets are almost as common as attack ads. take this reid tweet. sharron angle mocks health coverage for autism. then there's a link to a video. >> everything they want to throw at us now is covered under autism. so that's a mandate that you have to pay for. >> or this angle tweet, harry reid's plan to save the nevada economy, coked up stimulus monkeys. a reference to stimulus money being used to test on primates. this tweet gets personal referring to reid's campaign managers as 13-year-old girls and this tweet claiming angle caught in multiple lies. >> i think we're at a new era in american political history. >> reporter: another feature, the hash tack, that's the pound sign placed in front of common phrases or o acronyms.

leahy's hash tag has become a haven for twitters. >> if you put in pound tcoc, you'll see the tcoc fee. and about every ten minutes, is the pace. it shows there's a vibrant online community. >> reporter: leahy represents palin and beck as the top ten conservatives on twitter. with palin with more than 250,000 followers tweets, she makes news. >> she can put out a tweet and generate headlines in the traditional media. why would you go to the extra trouble? >> she'll have all these reporters retweeting what she tweeted a few minutes ago. >> and writing a story about it. the retweeting is how it gets out there. >> twitter is also an effective place to raise money. candidates can announce what's called a money bomb on twitter.

directing supporters to their campaign websites where a contribution can be made. think of twitter as the latest weapon in the new media, new social media arsenal that is out there on the campaign trail these days. and john and kiran, it's not just the harry reid and sharron angle campaign, just about every campaign is doing it these days. christine o'donnell announced a money bomb, raised a ton of money. all of these candidates are doing it these days. it is really sort of the next step in campaigning in this new era. >> because it's very easy to get just your message out. it's a one-way conversation. columnists -- yeah, they follow people's tweets. and the fact you can add video adds a whole other element, as well. >> absolutely, yeah. it's going to keep going on from there. it's not going to stop. and it's going to be amazing to see who comes up with the next, you know, sort of buzz application for social media. >> it really is amazing as larry was saying. people can commit news on twitter. who would've thought that was

possible? jim acosta for us this morning, thanks. your top stories this morning. river rising in wisconsin. a levee in real danger of failing this morning. basements and living rooms filling with water after a foot of rain came down last week. 150 residents in the area have been ordered out. emergency crew v crews say they're afraid they may not be able to reach them soon. also, embattled eddie long publicly addressed the allegations of sexual abuse for the first time. he says he's not a perfect man, but he's ready to fight. he didn't categorically deny the charges, either, though. four men have filed suit against long saying he lured them into sexual relationships when they were teenagers. an aid ship carrying supplies is heading to the gaza strip right now. the activists from israel, the united states, germany, and britain say they will not resist

if israel tries to stop them. the ship sets sail on sunday. new this morning, the push to keep the mideast peace talks alive. just hours ago, israel's ban expired. hundreds of israeli settlers in the west bank are celebrating. >> palestinians have threatened to quit the peace talks if more settlements are built. live in jerusalem. and the first thing that comes to mind is wow, those peace talks didn't last long. but has construction started anywhere at this point? >> reporter: yes, it has. we've had a team driving around the west bank this morning. and we've seen at least in two settlements and further up field, a construction is restarting. they told us on sunday they were going to do this. we were in a couple of settlements where they had a ground beaking ceremony, a countdown. it was a made for tv moment. they were celebrating what they saw as a victory that this

settlement freeze had not been continued. so across the west bank, what we're seeing today is pockets of construction. it may be slightly tempered down because we're in the middle of the jewish holiday. so less construction will hap n happen. but toward the end of this week, we could see it go back to normal. there's 13,000 buildings already been approved. they're expecting those to be started quite soon. >> also, what does it mean for the latest round of peace talks? i know this is a hugely contentious issue out there. does it take anything off the table at this point? >> reporter: well, kiran, the fact is here that both sides need to save face. to be able to stay within these peace talks. and remember, we're not even a month through these peace talks yet. so if they collapse, it would be a huge embarrassment and pretty dangerous for the united states. they've invested a lot of foreign policy, credibility into this. now, we're expecting nothing from the israeli prime minister, no official announcement about

the freeze. he made an announcement last night, a statement saying he hopes the palestinian president will stay at these peace talks, but he didn't even mention the word settlement. he's going to hope this will blow over and people will forget about it and move on to something else. from the palestinian president's point of view, he's hoping -- remember, he said if they keep building, we'll walk away from the peace talks. they're building, we can see they're building and yet he's still at the peace talks. so the pressure's on him at the moment. >> paula hancocks this morning, thank you so much. well, a hero pilot made an emergency landing with just one wheel. passengers aboard that flight over the weekend are joining us in the studio. they'll take us through the ordeal. they were running the cell phone the whole entire time and got video from the heart-racing moments. it's 35 minutes past the hour. it was always... [ laughing ] that seat's not happening without a big miles upcharge. a miles upcharge wasn't part of the deal.

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welcome back. it was anything but a routine landing. it was a delta flight. it was starting in atlanta, georgia, headed to white plains, new york, which is a suburb outside of the city forced to make a landing at jfk's airport

without its right wheel. that's right, landing gear fail. the pilot said to the flight attendants and the 64 passengers onboard, prepare for the worst. >> heads down! stay down! heads down! stay down! heads down, stay down! heads down, stay down! heads down! >> there it was, all caught on tape. and we get an exclusive firsthand account of what it felt like to be on that plane and what it was like and the dramatic video, as well, shot. you guys were buddies, flying from georgia back to white plains. when was the first indication you figured out something was wrong with this flight? >> the first indication was while we were circling west chester airport. we circled for a good 20

minutes. we were joking around with each other saying i don't know if he knows where the landing strip is. and then they made the announcement on the loud speaker. >> what did they say? >> they said we're going to be making an emergency landing. they didn't really have many details except there was no landing gear. so we're envisioning belly slide the whole way with sparks, but they came out later and said it was only the right rear landing gear that came down so it'd be hitting the wing. >> and what did it feel like to land? >> landing was actually quite smooth. the pilot did a wonderful job. we came down and, you know, the plane tipped slightly and the sparks came out, you guys saw the video. it was pretty intense. but they did a wonderful job. >> you know, it was funny is that if there can be anything funny in this heart-stopping situation is you clearly heard the flight attendant. you could hear the stress in her voice, stay down, heads down. clearly you guys weren't listening. >> well, we tried to follow directions. but she actually made it more

intense than i think it was. but that's what the right thing to do in that situation is, though, so you don't bang your head. we didn't know what to expect if we were going to flip or anything. so following directions at that point while filming, as well. >> you had your head down, you had your hand up? >> yeah, just kind of -- >> looking out the window. you said you two were relatively calm. there were some on the flight that were very frightened. tell us what was going on with some of the other passengers. >> well, i think the the initial announcement, i had a woman in front of me with tears coming down. she was holding her husband's hand. and also once the flight attendants were reading instructions about an emergency preserver. and there was a woman reaching for a life jacket. i said, just listen to the instructions and try to remain calm. >> people were frightened. if we could hear again the clapping that took place once you guys landed. i'm sure there was an immense amount of relief once you knew

you were okay. >> heads down! stay down! >> you heard it really quickly from your cell phone video. what happened as soon as everybody realized we're okay? >> you guys heard it. everybody was clapping. we, you know, immediately evacuated the plane and we were all on the tarmac. everybody was hugging and shaking hands and just happy that we all made it. the pilot came out and thanked us. we thanked him. it was just a really incredible few moments afterwards. >> how big of a plane? >> only about 64 people in total. we were actually the last two seats. and sandro was concerned. >> you don't know what's happening, this is the best-case scenario. you landed at jfk because the runway was longer. so you had to make the trek back there, but also no one was hurt at all. there were no injuries. so that's lucky.

it could have turned out differently. you make this trip a lot for business? are you going to think twice again before you get on the plane? >> i'm actually flying on wednesday to florida, i have to go out to work. i think i got that over with. that's a once in a lifetime thing. >> hopefully. hopefully. >> would you describe it that you were in a plane crash? >> if we wanted to, you know, initially we would say we survived a plane crash. but it's kind of -- after it was all finished, i almost hoped it was a little more bumpier so we had a cooler story, but i'm happy we're safe. >> that's easy to say now -- also, you ran out of cell phone battery, right? because you were taping and then the last your loved ones heard you had to make an emergency landing and then your phone died. come on, guys. >> that was pretty intense. i got a phone call shortly after that on his phone and i got to explain the situation. >> that you were fine. >> i still had battery, so he

had to call his girlfriend from my phone. >> well, all's well that ends well, and you have the tape to show us. so thanks for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having us. >> sure. >> thanks for coming in this morning. john? >> what an ordeal. glad it was them, not me. 36 days to the election, and the democratic heavy weights are hitting the campaign trail. trying to help embattled democrats. can they rally voters? details coming up from the cnnpolitics.com desk. [ male announcer ] the financial headlines can be unsettling. but what if there were a different story?

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coming up now at 47 minutes after the hour, let's get a check of the weather headlines. and rob, an awful lot of rain out there today. >> yeah, on the east coast especially. all that rain was in the midwest last week. its slow-moving system dropped a foot of rain in some parts of wisconsin and minnesota. and the result is the flooding we're seeing right now. rivers cresting over the weekend, but the levees in stress mode in portage, wisconsin. the wisconsin river cresting at a record over 20 feet yesterday. and it's going to be over flood stage here for the next several days. so where the levee hasn't failed may very well do that in the next day or two. so we're very concerned about that. we also have flood watches and warnings posted for the east coast because of the rain that's happening right now. several inches of rainfall for georgia and across the carolinas and up towards the northeast. so this wide swath of moisture with a little bit of a tropical connection here from the

panhandle of florida right up through the carolinas. some of these rain showers are actually thunderstorms with some really heavy rainfall. and this is all stretching up towards d.c. and new york. so you'll see the rainfall in your area on the increase throughout the day today. and that will certainly cause some travel delays given landing gear is all operable. we had temperatures up and over 100 degrees out west, it'll be hot again today, but these are some of the numbers yesterday. macon, georgia, 4.23. it's been pretty dry across the southeast for this summer. so this rainfall certainly welcome, but too much of a good thing at one time, obviously, you get a little bit in the way of some headaches. i want to touch on what's going on in the tropics. remember matthew? we didn't know what matthew was going to do. well, matthew pretty much is dead, but there's an area of low pressure -- very broad area of low pressure over the northwestern caribbean and this orange box is what we think may very well develop into our next tropical depression. right now the national hurricane center giving a 30% of developing over the next two

days. but if we let it percolate longer than than, it may very well be our next depression or storm here before the week is done. that's the latest check on weather. more about this wisconsin flooding at the top of the hour. >> doesn't look like anything's moving in the tropics there. do you have a direction on where that storm may go? >> well, that's the problem. it's just kind of sitting there and percolating and because of that we're concerned about the fact that something may develop here in the next day or two. but once it does, this time of year they tend to drift either west or north and that would bring it into the gulf of mexico. so we'll keep an eye on it. there are some new poll numbers out this morning on the the president's job performance and why that could erase his democratic majority in congress. the details coming up. 49 minutes past the hour. us sav. add some insulathere. a little weather stripping there. maybe an energy star-rated appliance, or two. let's save money on the things that keep saving money. that way, we can turn a little energy into a lot of savings.

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welcome back. time for the most politics in the morning. and crossing our political ticker this monday morning, president obama hits the campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections. and he's not alone. candidates are tapping heavy hitters in the home stretch. >> that's right. our senior political editor mark preston's live at the cnnpolitics.com desk with more details on it for us. hey, mark. >> you're absolutely right. you know we're close to election day when you see all the politicians are leaving washington. they're out on the campaign trail. as you said, john, president obama starts off the week politically in wisconsin on tuesday for the first of four major campaign rallies. this rally's going to take place in madison, wisconsin. we'll see joe biden today up in new hampshire. he's going to be campaigning on

behalf of two democrats running for congress and the senate seat up there. we'll also see haley barber. he'll be in new hampshire for john steven. mitt romney will be in florida for rick scott who is running for governor down there. we'll also see mike pence in iowa and tim pawlenty in new hampshire. and if you look at the whole count of that, it shows me there are at least four potential republican presidential candidates campaigning for the midterm elections in very important states. let's talk about the problems democrats face right now. a new cnn opinion research corporation poll shows that president obama's approval rating has hit an all-time low. it comes in at 42%. a terrible number right now as we're heading into the midterm elections. but even worse news, perhaps, for democrats is when matched up against the republicans in the

generic ballot question, the choice for congress for american voters at this point in time, 53% for republicans, 44% for democrats. so, again, another damning number for democrats as we head into the midterm elections. and let's close it with this. rahm emanuel is clearly looking at running for the mayor of chicago. of course, he's president obama's chief of staff. well, he was the topic of conversation a little bit yesterday, including david axelrod who is the senior strategist for president obama. he said that rahm emanuel is working through some personal issues right now, but whether he wants to run or not run. but he is drawn to running for the mayor of chicago. on our own program "state of the union," candy crowley asked dick durbin if he would endorse rahm emanuel for mayor. dick durbin said not at this time. so, again, a lot of political talk. emanuel looking a little beyond

the midterms it appears while democrats are laser focused on the midterms. john, kiran? >> well, if rahm emanuel knows how to do anything, it's win an election. there's no question about that. >> no question. he is -- what's that famous story about a fish wrapped up in a newspaper to a political opponent? so he plays to win. no question. >> you know, we talked about stephen colbert and his testimony before congress on friday. it seemed to appear as though he was going to do it straight as himself, and i guess the written testimony he put in seemed to be straight, as well. and it was a very different story when he showed up. >> it was. and we heard john boehner say it was inappropriate. but it certainly drew attention to this whole idea and issue of illegal immigrants. and you know, as you know, you get sworn into office. and, you know, if you do the wrong thing, you could get in trouble. but colbert got out of washington unscathed, so to speak. >> thanks so much.

we'll go to check back with mark in our next hour. and a reminder for the latest political news, go to our website cnnpolitics.com. talking about the levee break in wisconsin. we have a lot of other stories including bishop long speaking out against the sex assault allegations. we'll be right back with much more on that. 57 minutes past the hour.

levee on the brink. people on the move before the water traps them in. >> we wouldn't be able to get in and out for days on end. and we'd have to float in and out. >> the wisconsin river rising to levels we've never seen. on the most news in the morning. good monday morning to you. thanks for joining us on this 27th day of o september, i'm john roberts. >> and i'm kiran chetry.

eddie long is speaking publicly for the first time since four young men now have filed lawsuits accusing long of coercing them into sex when they were teenagers. we're live on this developing story just ahead. an overwhelming majority of people think the country's economy is in the toilet. but the president hopes to sway voters as he begins a cross-country trip today. from new mexico to virginia and spaces in between, he's got a packed schedule. live report coming up from our ed henry. well, he was once called bush's brain. karl rove, the man former president bush called the architect is going on the defense again. he reportedly raised millions to attack democrats in the stretch run. is he worried more about the uprising in his own party? we're going to talk about the tea party and a possible gop civil war. up first, though, extreme weather. emergency crews are fearing the total failure of a levee that's been around for 110 years in wisconsin is located along the wisconsin river just south of portage. emergency officials told about

150 residents to get out yesterday fearing that flooding could wash out the only road leading in and out of the area. some people who didn't listen are already cut off. the same storm system overflowed rivers and extremes in southern minnesota. water pouring through dam destroyed more than half of the homes in the small town of hammond. some people who were allowed back to get their belongings found an inch of mud on their floors. and there's more torrential rain on the radar. the carolinas on the alert this morning. up to 5 inches of rain could fall there. our rob marciano in the extreme weather center tracking all of this for us this morning. and rob, it's looking pretty ugly out there. >> it is. no rain expected for wisconsin and minnesota. but what came through last week and really a matter of two days -- in some cases almost as much as a foot of rain in this area. to give you an idea of what we're looking at. the wisconsin river, a pretty big river that eventually dumps into the mississippi river. but at portage, it makes this

turn down to the south. that puts more stress on this levee, which built over 100 years ago, pretty sandy composition of this thing. so officials are knowing it's not well made and they're worried about that, as well. so as this river makes this turn down to the south, it puts that pressure off. but what's the deal with it? where are we as far as the crest goes? well, it did crest yesterday at 20.56 feet. so they've never seen the river that high. it is sewly making its way below flood stage, but is not going to do that until wednesday or thursday. you're looking at two to three days of this above flood stage, meaning putting extreme pressure on the levee system there. that's the issue we're dealing with here. it's not just -- usually when a river crests, we begin to relax. but because we have this pressure for another couple of days, there's no relaxing whatsoever. and we have the rainfall across parts of carolinas. 2 to 4, to 5 inches of rain on

top of what we've seen. and there it is. it's going to be a slow-go on the east coast today. and we'll watch out for flooding across the carolinas. more on this and the tropics later on in the program. john and kiran? >> thanks so much. well, new this morning. there are new details emerging in the man hunt now for a gunman who opened fire at an off-campus party near seton hall university over the weekend. 19-year-old honor student jessica moore seen here on her facebook page was killed in the attack. witnesses are telling local news agencies that she died trying to save her friend. jumping in front of a friend to shield her from the gunfire. there were other people injured, as well. most are in stable condition. so not sure if the shooter was a student. right now officers are looking at surveillance video in the neighborhood for potential evidence. the first of three rescue capsules arriving at the mine in chile to reached 33 men trapped for two months now.

it's going to be a long trip too. don't forget they're 2,300 feet down. engineers in charge of the drilling now think they could reach the men by early november. embattled mega church pastor eddie long breaking his public silence about this growing sex scandal. bishop long took to the pulpit yesterday telling the faithful that he's under attack and that he plans to fight back. four men now are accusing long of coercing them into sex when they were teenagers. cnn's martin savage is following the developments right now live in atlanta. these are civil cases filed, correct? >> that's correct. these are not criminal allegations made, these are civil cases. lawsuits that have been filed. bishop eddie long admitted yesterday that this past week had been the most difficult week he's ever had to face in his entire life. many of his parishioners would say the same thing. which is why they couldn't wait to hear what their pastor had to say.

standing before an overflowing crowd of congregants, he was in no mood to back down. >> there have been allegations and attacks made on me. i have never in my life portrayed myself as a perfect man. but i am not the man that's being portrayed on the television. that's not me. that is not me. >> reporter: it was long's first public comments since four young men filed lawsuits accusing him

of using his spiritual position and the church's wealth to coerce them into sex. so many came to hear what long had to say, traffic was still snarled as the service began. >> what do you hope to hear today? >> the truth. the truth. >> reporter: inside, parishioners waited an hour for their embattled pastor to appear. when he finally did, walking hand-in-hand with his wife, the crowd came to its feet. clearly feeling at home, long acknowledged those listening went far beyond his usual sunday morning crowd. >> good morning, new birth. and good morning to all our other guests. >> when long eventually turned to the scandal it, the levity was gone. >> i've been accused, i'm under attack. >> reporter: and his intentions became clear, describing a legal battle of biblical proportions. >> i am not a perfect man.

but this thing i'm going to fight. and i want you to know one other thing, i feel like david against goliath. but i got five rocks, and i haven't thrown one yet. >> well, some people would point out that that analogy of david and goliath is a very interesting one. but they're not sure it really applies here. after all, eddie long is the head of one of the largest mega churches in the country. one of the richest and most politically connected. he flies around the world in his own private jet and knows many world leaders including presidents by their very first name. hardly the image of a david. kiran? >> the other thing is he was careful to say i'm not perfect, i made mistakes or however he put it, he did not deny any of the allegations. but that could technically could be on the advice of his lawyers, as well, who don't want him says

much at this point? >> right, he came out and spoke to reporters after that service and said, yes, at the advice of attorneys. he always seemed to couch his phrasing there was more he wanted to say but could not say. and some people would say, how come you couldn't say you're innocent? coming up on eight minutes after the hour. new this morning, a trip to virginia beach turns into the fight of one young surfer's life. a teenager and a friend were standing in the water next to their surf boards when they felt something brush up against them. >> there was something out there with us. and it grabbed my ankle and i kind of felt a little bit of a flashing. i immediately jumped on my board to try to get myself out of the water. and i felt my board start to lean back and i felt a sharp pain in my knee and after that, it let go. a quick bite and release. i was hoping i wasn't going to lose a leg or not be able to must've my leg ever again. i feel real lucky i can still

move my leg. >> 51 stitches and a harrowing tale later. authorities are saying it was a small shark that bit the boy's leg. they're trying to figure out what kind of shark it was. but consensus is it was a fairly small shark. >> and imagine if it was a bigger one, yikes. >> might not have hit the leg anymore. hyundai recalling because of faulty steering columns. the national highway traffic safety administration investigating the same problems with steering column parts last month. dealers will inspect and update the power software for free. greed is good. so is the sequel, apparently. gordon gekko takes "wall street: money never sleeps" to the box office over the weekend. it made an estimated $19 million big ones on the opening weekend. is the man that former president bush called the architect waging a shadow political war raising millions to get the democrats out of power?

but is it making the gop split wider? hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. you know, if we had let fedex office print our presentation, they could have shipped it too. saved ourselves the hassle. i'm not too sure about this. look at this. [ security agent ] right. you never kick off with sales figures. kicking off with sales figures! i'm yawning. i'm yawning some more.

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and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. welcome just after the hour. he's back and busy trying to get his brand of republicans elected. the "new york times" reporting that gop strategist karl rove is playing a leading role in what amounts to amount a shadow

republican party. so, jim, rove is holding the strategy sessions over chicken pot pies with people like ed galespie, and others, what's going on here? >> he's back in action and he's really raising a lot of money to help his party get congress back this fall. >> is he sort of trying to position himself as the de facto leader of the republican party? the real strategist here? the architect of the 2010 election? >> i don't know if he's trying to position himself as the leader. i don't think he loves getting this kind of attention. and to some degree, he's got a book, his own tv career right now. but he is a man with a plan. he always was for that party. and there's a vacuum right now in the leadership in a way. they don't have the presidential candidate or anything like that, he's just trying to bring his chops to get them back. >> republican leadership, jim says there's a bit of a vacuum

there. obviously they don't have a presidential candidate yet. and michael steele has been a man of controversy many people in the republican party don't think he's an effective leader. are they looking to karl rove to try to give them some direction? >> i think that is the central element of this. i mean, what they built under the eight years of the bush administration was really a very muscular republican national committee. you can ask why does that matter? it matters in terms of getting voters to the polls. it matters in terms of maximizing the potential of their election. a lot of republicans were concerned this year that that muscle was no longer there that it sort of atro feed. and you can see it on the ground in places of ohio in massive amounts of phone calls and direct mail campaign. it's all being funded by outside groups that are not coming through the basic party structure. so, you know, this shadow gop, if you will, is having an effect

in this midterm election. >> jim, when you look at the people involved here. he used to run the rnc, so he knows all about it. you've got very powerful figures coming together. but at the same time, there's a bit of a civil war brewing between not the actual leadership of the republican party, but between these de facto leaders in the republican party, karl rove saying unkind things about christine o'donnell who is the republican nominee, the candidate in delaware. is there a real split between the old establishment and the tea party candidates coming up? >> without a doubt. who is karl rove? they are the establishment. the tea party movement is not about the establishment, they're very against the establishment. there is a split. however, ironically, it will be the establishment that's going to get their candidates into power. >> you think? >> well, with their help, definitely. >> one of the things rove is doing which is interesting, he doesn't like christine o'donnell, thinks she's a bad

choice, thinking republicans could lose what could be an easy win in delaware. but he is supporting sharron angle. >> in a big way. it does happen to be the state of his old nemesis harry reid. but they want a majority. o'donnell was too far field in rove's view and the people working with him. >> jeff, at the same time, all of this is going on on the republican side, democrats are ramping up for the midterm elections with an assault of negative ads. and every election cycle we hear this is going to be the nastiest one ever, but this really has a chance of being that. >> i think that's right. and we're seeing -- in tv ads running across the country. we're hearing more about used car salesmen and slum lords than we are about the health care vote, for example. what the democrats have decided to do in the house, particularly, is really go hard at some of these republicans who have never run for office before who are trying to take advantage of some of this anti-incumbent

sentiment. and the democrats are running a very personal and negative tv ads trying to discredit them in their eyes of their voters. it's happening a lot here in ohio. some six congressional seats are in play. they're always negative, but more negative this year and much earlier in the cycle. >> and we talk about all politics being local, but you've got to wonder if that's going to be the case this year if you look at the approval ratings of the president. we'll see. what? about 4 1/2 weeks to go in this whole thing? it's going to be pretty interesting. great to talk to you this morning, thanks so much. >> thanks, john. >> kiran? all right. well, coming up, the next installment of our series of soldiers story. we go along his third tour of duty. what's it like for him and the family he's leaving behind? jason carroll with an a.m. original next. i love you grandma. grandma just makes me happy.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. we have been following army sergeant first class randy shorder for months now. he recently returned to afghanistan for a third tour of

duty. >> and getting to a forward-operating base in afghanistan was half the battle. jason carroll with the latest installment with our series "a soldier's story." you got a chance to see firsthand what it's like to be out there in such a remote and dangerous part of the country. >> right. and it really seemed to take forever to get there. it was a little frustrating on our part. some on the part of the soldiers, as well. i think there are a number of civilians out there who might assume that when a soldier's deployed, their unit goes straight from the united states to the assignment overseas. but it can be a drawn out process, one that begins with good-bye. >> reporter: it's sergeant first class randy shorder's last night at home. >> this is the last time in the states. >> reporter: but his daughters aren't ready to say good-bye before dad leaves on his third deployment to afghanistan. >> i know it's really difficult

for you. >> i just don't want him to go. >> say cheese. >> reporter: the next morning -- >> you can't explain the emotion, you know. you can't convey the feelings we're going through. it's hard to explain it. you can't put it into words. >> whether it's one week, one day, it doesn't matter. saying good-bye's hard. >> what you go through here, you're going to pick up your stuff. >> reporter: all the soldiers you see here have an frp packet. mental, dental records, paperwork to make sure their will is in order. >> if you're scared, you should be. trust your training, trust yourselves, trust your buddy next to you. so. >> reporter: basically right now everyone's boarding the flight. they charter a plane in these situations.

does it feel more real now when you're boarding or when you finally get there? >> now. >> now. >> welcome aboard. welcome aboard. >> reporter: the flight takes us from ft. campbell, kentucky, to shannon, ireland for refueling. >> long, drawn out. >> reporter: hours later, more refueling. next stop, kyrgyzstan. >> from a psychological point of view, where do you think you and the rest of the men are at this point? >> right now, we're kind of still got the feel of home. but in a few hours these guys will actually put their game faces on. once they get that uniform on, then the reality sinks in that it's time to do business. >> reporter: on day four, since leaving the states, c-17

aircraft to bagram airfield, afghanistan. everyone's packed in pretty tight, everyone's tired, but we're finally on our way. heavy fighting in the region stops the fifth leg of the trip. our flight to eastern afghanistan aborted midair. >> we're never leaving this place. >> reporter: the last wave of the troop surge to afghanistan creates a bottleneck on flights. >> waiting like this for someone like you on your first deployment. does that help with your nerves? >> it makes me a little more nervous. like i said, you've got to get psyched up. and it's hard to keep psyching and psyching yourself up. >> the longer they stay here, the more stories they hear about what's going on. and that just builds more -- it makes them more nervous because they don't know what to expect. >> finally, a flight opens. on to our final destination. >> just a few minutes ago, we

arrived here, finally. so at this point, sergeant shorter is checking his men in, and then they can finally get on with their mission. >> good to get here. tired of waiting. >> reporter: the wait would not be much longer. shorter's mission would soon take his platoon outside the base to confront the threat of i.e.d.s. >> praying nothing happened down there. but you know, the word is, some children got injured. >> going to have more on that for you coming up tomorrow. now, we originally thought that shorter's final stop was going to be there in sharrana, but he was then moved to a forward-operating base located just a few miles away. and, of course, when you move to a smaller base, there are increased security risks because you have less personnel there on the ground. and much was said of the delay,

obviously in terms of us getting there. because you have 30,000 some odd soldiers all being sort of pushed into this region. and it just puts a strain on the transportation system. we talked to one of the guys out there. and he tells us that the strain should relieve itself some time in the beginning of october. >> wow. also, when you go to the base, the one you said his orders were changed to, you're leaving a lot of the people that you were sort of bonding with and thinking we're going to be relying on and what, taking just a smaller group with you? >> right. he's going to be taking a smaller unit into there. but their mission is still the same. engaging the afghan people, working with the afghan police, working with the afghan army. and doing that all the while being very aware of the threat of i.e.d.s out there. >> third tour of duty. is there anything he hasn't seen at this point? >> well, it isn't over yet. so we'll see. we shall see. >> really interesting, we look forward to tomorrow's piece, as well, jason.

and tomorrow's going to be looking at american troops heading outside the wire of their forward operating bases. an assignment fraught with danger, but an essential part of u.s. strategy. he's going to give us a taste of what that is like tomorrow on "american morning." president obama has a packed schedule and a full plate this week. he's about to start a cross-country trip. and at every stop, voting americans will be waiting for an explanation on one thing. what's happening with the economy. a live report from ed henry just ahead. also, the real fireworks from senator john mccain's debate last night. took place outside arizona. and we have the video straight ahead from the cnnpolitics.com desk.

crossing the half hour now. that means it's time for this morning's top stories. fearing total failure in wisconsin. crews watching the impending collapse of a 110-year-old levee.

torrential rains now building pressure along the wisconsin river. south of portage, some 150 residents were told to get out yesterday. emergency officials say it's too late for some who didn't leave. they are now cut off. and many homes are under water. well, there's a new kid in class, newly appointed elena kagan at work today a week before her term officially begins. she and the other justices will meet privately to file through thousands of appeals and pinpoint which cases they think should be heard. "usa today" reporting that airline fees are up over 50% from last year. for example, want to speed to the front of the line? united airlines charges the most at $39. and changing your flight on continental, delta, or united will set you back, listen to this, $250. it all adds up. the u.s. airlines raked in over $2 billion of revenue for such fees during this year's second quarter. >> i never got why you'd want to pay more just to sit on the

plane longer. you know? i guess it's if you have so much carry-on luggage. >> i guess it's people are bringing on luggage because they don't want to pay the $50. >> and then you've got to pay a fee for that. >> it's crazy. >> gas it up and drive yourself. now to president obama's trip to talk to real people about the unnerving realities of the u.s. economy. it all starts in albuquerque where the president will be speaking with local families, then it's on to madison, wisconsin, des moines, and eventually, richmond, virginia. and there's no telling what kind of response he'll get. look at this cnn poll which found an overwhelming majority, 74% of americans believe we're in a recession. ed henry is live at the white house. that's not all that surprising. no one feels, even though, you know, the brightest minds tell us we're out of it that we really are on solid ground in

terms of our economy. >> that's right, kiran. and it shows with just 36 days until the midterm elections, the president will travel to those four states. he's really trying to crank up his own role in making the case on the economy, the tax cuts, the twin issues driving voter anger right now. and he's running into some tough head winds. you're right because people don't feel like this recession is over. and i think if you look at a second number in the new cnn opinion research corporation poll. it also asks whether or not you feel like the president's policies are making the situation better in terms of the economy. only 36% say yes, 61% say no. that's one head wind the president is facing. the other on capitol hill. if you remember, one of his top priorities is before the election, trying to get at least some of the bush tax cuts extended permanently. tax cuts for those making under $250,000 a year.

it's clear he does not have the votes. whence you listen to people like senator joe liberman on cnn's state of the union with candy crowley. basically saying that he and other centrist democrats are not on board with only extending middle class tax cuts. they want to also at least temporarily extend tax cuts for the rich. >> i think that, you know, it's easy enough to say that people who make a lot of money don't deserve a tax cut now, but the truth is, if you have more money, you spend more money, you invest more money, that's what we need to happen now to grow jobs in our economy. >> now, you'll remember how the president was trying to frame this a couple of weeks ago at a white house news conference. he was trying to frame the whole debate as republicans trying to hold those middle class tax cuts hostage, when, in fact, now he's got an independent democrat like joe liberman who essentially are holding this upright now because they also want to at least temporarily extend the tax cuts

for the rich. a big, big problem. >> on-in the meantime, he goes on the campaign trail pretty battered. his approval rating 42%, that's the lowest we've seen from this president. and the percentage of people keeps dropping who think he's doing a good job right now. >> he's going to try -- and you're right. what he's going to try to do is recapture some of that magic from 2008, number one. in albuquerque, he's going to go to a family and actually go into their yard, talk about the economy, to bring it down local like he did in 2008. then in madison, wisconsin, doing a big, large rally like 2008 with college students trying to get some of the energy going. but you have to know that democrats are very nervous about these elections coming up quickly here. we were talking about how they can't get these middle class tax cuts extended even though they have 59 democrats in the senate. what if they end up with 52 or lose the majority in the senate. it's going to be that much

harder when he's already got 59 democrats. he still can't get the super majority of 60. it'll be that much harder to get his agenda through. john, kiran? >> well, it'll be a tough one on the road today. thanks so much. >> let's get a check of some of the other stories crossing the cnn political ticker this morning. our senior political editor mark preston live at the cnnpolitics.com desk for us. what have you got this morning, mark? >> well, as ed just said, democrats are concerned about the midterm elections and that's why we're seeing president obama on the trail. part of the reason is the enthusiasm by the tea party. what do americans think of the tea party? we asked the question, what is your opinion of the tea party in this new cnn opinion research corporation poll. well, americans are split, 43% say the tea party is too extreme while 41% say it's in the mainstream. but let's take the question a little bit farther. how influential is the tea party? are you more likely to vote for

a congressional candidate who the tea party supports? 50% said yes while only 33% said no. so the tea party clearly showing it is a very influential force in politics here in the u.s. let's talk a little bit about my second home, cape cod, massachusetts, in fact, my parents still live down there as does my sister. there is a congressional race down there that republicans think they can take back, john and kiran. the fact that we're talking about a massachusetts congressional race clearly shows that democrats are in trouble across the country. the current congressman is retiring. the two candidates running jeff ferry the republican, the democrat is william cheating. let's just go back to 2009, scott brown, the republican, carried this district by 60%. so democrats clearly in a bit of a fight on cape cod. and let's close with this. you know, a lot of passion and

anger and about politics heading into the elections. look at what happened several hours ago in arizona where john mccain was facing off in a general election debate with the democrat nominee out there. well, there was some heated arguments outside as john mccain was leaving. and in fact, a protesters -- a protester tried to get in his face. and we're told by the campaign you see a police officer there get in the way and push her out of the way. the protester is sawing john mccain has got to go. she goes on to say, this is how peace activists get treated and the warmonger john mccain gets to walk out. clearly a lot of passion in the midterm elections. >> wow, that was interesting to watch. my second home is on cape cod? wow. you're not going to generate any sympathy with that. >> excuse me, excuse me. let me just say that there's a lot of misinformation about cape cod. blue collar cape cod and then there's the island. >> that's right. just like all of long island

isn't the hamptons. >> it's not? you and me versus john. >> we're going to check back with mark in our next hour. 38 minutes after the hour. c s. t t adwiwiout food al (announcer) everything you need to stay balanced on long trips. residence inn.

40 minutes past the hour right now. welcome back to the most politics in the morning. well, he shocked the gop establishment in florida on primary night. now rick scott is the republican's nominee for governor. his father was a truck driver, his mother was a salesclerk in jc penney, he's a self-made millionaire and scott's also a political rookie who only jumped into the race in april. but because of the tea party support he had and $50 million of his own fortune behind him, he was able to come from behind and win. so today we meet the candidate rick scott. thanks so much for joining us. >> good morning. >> you do have a unique story when it comes to how you got into politics in the first place. why would you want the job of ceo of florida? >> well, i believe in the american dream. i started out in public housing. my parents, my father was a truck driver. i know what it's like to be

unemployed, have parents unemployed. and i've lived the american dream. i want that same daughter for my daughters, sons-in-law, grand kids, and everyone in florida. i'm running because i believe that we've got -- we've got to go back and build private sector jobs. my whole plan is seven steps to 700,000 jobs. i'm going to turn the state around. >> and those are certainly good goals to have. florida's been suffering, as well. but there's a recent mason-dixon poll out. seven points behind sink, your democratic competitor. but republicans are only behind you 75%. i know it was a bit of an ugly primary there. and so 11% of them are going for alex sink. how do you get your own base behind you and move on to the independents? >> well, they had me down nine points two days before the primary too and i won that. in the primary i won because people believed i could build

private sector jobs because that's all i've done. the latest poll shows me up six points. but polls are not what's important. it's who is going to build jobs in this country? in our state, you know, we've had out migration for the first time in 40 years. and we need to build are private sector jobs. and so my plan, seven steps to 700,000 jobs is a plan people believe in. all of us believe in -- >> you can't get your primary opponent to endorse you. how much do you need mccullen to say, the past is in the past. >> he's been in politics for 30 years. but my focus is just what i did in the primary, go right out and talk to voters. and talk about what we need. we need jobs, jobs, jobs. and i'm going to be the jobs governor. we're going to control government spending and reduce regulation and phase out business tax and reduce property tax. and i'm going to be the chief economic development officer for the state and build jobs in the state. we're going to be the number one

job creator. >> how do you create jobs at the same time having the balance of budget that may require some paring down, which means job losses? >> the private sector builds jobs not government. as more money goes back to the private sector, goes back to your family. look, we are the perfect state for growth. no income tax, right to work state, beautiful beaches, beautiful weather. look at our location, you know, growth in central and south america, the expansion of the panama canal, we will be the job creator. >> i want to ask you about some of the criticisms. you have this fraud case against one of your former employers because the company had to pay a $1.7 billion fine. does it make it hard for voters to trust you when they say, wait a minute, when you were heading up this former company, you guys cheated the federal government? >> well, you know what i tell people, if you're the ceo of the company, you have to take responsibility for what happens. that company made mistakes, i take responsibility. we have could've hire more,

could've hired more auditors. but that's a difference between a business person and a politician. you know you have to show up and fix things. politicians don't. look at where we are. the highest unemployment on record, 44% of our homeowners under water on mortgages. who is taking responsibility? what they know is i believe -- you know, i believe in responsibility. i will fix problems. hopefully nothing will go wrong when i'm governor, but what they'll know is i'll take responsibility. but this election is about jobs. jobs, jobs, jobs. and i've got the plan to do that. >> i want to take a look at the campaign ad republicans have out against your competitor alex sink. let's take a look. >> you worked your whole life. you saved. it's your pension. you earned it. but with alex sink in charge, florida's pension fund has lost $24 billion. that's not a typo, 24 billion gone, she was making risky investments.

>> so the website that sort of fact-checked the accuracy of statements gave this ad a barely true because they said it really wasn't just alex sink making the decisions here. so you just said a ceo of a company, you have to admit you were wrong. are you unfairly saying she's in charge of this decision. >> she should make sure these things don't happen. she was told by auditors multiple times that their investments were way too risky. that should never have happened. she's the chief financial officer of the state. she's responsible for this. and they lost $24 billion of pension money for floridians. that's a big problem. >> how influential is the tea party for you? but how do you plan to draw on their support to hopefully win in florida? >> most of the pea party movements have endorsed me because i believe in what they believe in. i believe in limited government and fiscal responsibility.

and so they've supported me. i'm the republican candidate. i welcome their support. no different than i welcome, you know, all republicans, all the independents, all democrats. because -- this is an election again, this is about jobs and that's why people are supporting me. they know that's all i've done my whole life. started out in public housing, started companies, and i've built jobs forever. >> rick scott, florida's gubernatorial candidate, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. coming up on the most news in the morning, taking control of your health. elizabeth cohen will introduce us to parents who trusted their gut and saved their daughter's life. 47 minutes after the hour. my father brought me up to give back to society... felicia jackson promised her late sister that she would take care of her children. but she needed help. i used my american express open card to get half a million points to buy building materials to help build the jackson family a new home. well, i know if my dad was still around, he would have told me, with no doubt... he would have told me it's a no brainer and i knew that from the start.

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welcome back, quick check on weather for you. we do have flood warnings in effect for minneapolis back through lacrosse, including wi wisconsin river is up and over flood stage, will be for the next couple of days. we'll have more on that. homes are flooded in parts of that levee have failed. the rainfall from that system has moved off to the east and we're looking at heavy rainfall from south georgia through the carolinas, and this is rolling up through the northeast as well. we have flash flood watches in effect. 2 to 4 inch, possibly as much as 5 inches across the carolinas throughout the day. some of this is needed rainfall but we obviously don't want to have it all coming at one time. here are some of the numbers from yesterday. 24-hour rain totals. troy, alabama seeing 4 inches

there. so a decent amount of rainfall. also watching this in the tropics, this is not matthew. it's kind of part of an area of low pressure that may develop in northwestern caribbean and drift up toward florida. we'll keep an eye on it for you. "american morning" is coming right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. and you rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. and go. you can even take a full-size or above.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. time for an a.m. house call. becoming an empowered patient. we talked a lot about this with elizabeth cohen. she learned how important it is, in fact, it's the title of her new book. >> she has a special this weekend you don't want to miss. elizabeth joins us now from atlanta with the first of several lessons that could save lives. elizabeth, as the parent of two children who played baseball, this one is really frightening. >> it is. i mean, john, kiran, you are parents, this is every parent's nightmare. your child has an injury, you know that they are seriously ill but the folks in the emergency room say don't worry and want to send you home. as you said, this happened to a family in ohio, and we here at cnn medical teamed up with the animation folks at turner studios to bring you their story.

one spring evening don was playing with his kids. he meant to hit a fly ball to his son but it socked his daughter on the head. she melted to the ground in pain. morgan had a bump on her head. her parents iced it down and she seemed fine. two nights later, something changed. >> she started crying. >> tell me what you heard. >> my head. it's hurting. she was holding it. my head's hurting. >> they rushed morgue tune the emergency room. >> what did the doctor say? >> i'm sure she's tired, she probably has a touch of the flu. >> they say the doctor told them to take morgan home and put her to bed. they knew better. their instijts told them this was no flu virus. they pushed for a scan of her brain. >> what do you think the results were going to be? >> there was something definitely wrong. you could feel it in your gut. >> i thought i knew there was a

problem. >> he said i was surprised. there's something there. >> there was a leakage of blood into her skull. >> medics rushed morgan by helicopter to rainbow babies and children's hospital in cleveland, ohio. >> this is a big blood clot in the skull outside the brain. that's what we had to remove to take out the blood clot and stop the bleeding. >> today, morgan is just fine. >> you feel like a lucky girl? >> yeah. >> lucky because her parents followed their instincts. >> in the emergency room the doctor said she had a virus and needed to get some rest. if you had listened to that, and brought her home to go to bed and rest, what would have happened? >> she probably wouldn't have woken up the next morning. and we would have lost her. >> just amazing. i mean. >> so scary. >> what could have been if they hadn't trusted their instincts.

listen to your gut here. and an important lesson for parents to remember when their child is sick. what if you know, you do feel this way and you go to the emergency room doctors and say i don't agree, can you do further testing and they say no? >> that's initially what happened with the mccrackens, they weren't getting what they wanted, and they said we are seriously concerned that this is not what you think it is. we think that she's had a traumatic brain injury. you spell it out for them that really helps. if you spell out exactly what you think it is, and why you think it is that, that will probably get the doctor more concerned. but they know that the doctor did it really in their words to apiece them, i think maybe the doctor was almost getting sick of hearing from them but it worked in their case and eventually they did do the ct scan and did get her to the surgery. >> elizabeth, you wonder what we as patients, as parents can do to help doctors get the diagnosis right. did her parents say she was hit on the head a couple of days

ago? >> they did. the doctor said that was 48 hours ago, it couldn't be that even though natasha had a similar thing happen to her. the most important question you can ask your doctor in a situation like this is simple. doctor, what else can this be? sure, it could have been the flu, she had a headache, but it could have been other things, asking that question can make your doctor rethink his conclusions. >> let's hope the doctor heard about this story. it sounds like he needs a wake-up call. >> he did. it was a wake-up call for him. >> great. liz, thanks so much. elizabeth's special report, the empowered patient, taking control of your health care, this coming saturday and sunday night, 7:00 eastern, right here on cnn. >> we're going to take a quick break. your top stories including the latest on the levee situation in wisconsin. some residents trap there had after rising flood waters.

>> at some point someone along the line either in your family or in your neighborhood will be diagnosed with this disease. and if it's caught early enough, it is entirely treatable. but there is so little known about it. childhood friend who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and unfortunately succumbed to the disease because she didn't recognize the warning signs until it was too late. that's when i really got involved. join the movement. impact your world.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com thanks for being with us on this "american morning." it's monday, september 27th. >> thanks for joining us. a lot to talk about this morning. let's get to it. extreme weather. a levee on the brink of total failure now in wisconsin. residents living nearby adviced to leave before they have no way to get out. rob marciano is watching that and another potentially dangerous storm up and down the east coast this morning. >> the pentagon going to great lengths to destroy an army reservist memoir of an operation in afghanistan. they bought up all 950 copies saying operation dark heart threatens national security by revealing classified information. the author says it feels like retaliation. barbara starr breaks down the details. >> there has been a lot of talk about the momma grizzlies in

politics. sarah palin made the moniker famous. what can she do for female candidates. >> the live conversation, go to cnn.com/amfix. >> a first, extreme weather, a levee in wisconsin is beginning to collapse. it's on the brink of total failure now. under pressure after a foot of rain fell last week. >> emergency officials warned 150 residents in portage, wisconsin, to get out yesterday. some who did not heed that warning are already cut off. >> now it's up to the floor board boards and the water's knee deep right now. it's getting higher. >> we'll talk it over with my wife and i. even though where we're standing here is plenty high, we wouldn't be able to get in and out for days on end, and we'd have to float in and out. i'm not ready to get my boats out yet.

>> a lot of trouble in wisconsin. rob is in the extreme weather center in atlanta with the remnants of a lot of rain in wisconsin and a lot of rain up and down the east coast today. it's going to cause some travel problems. >> that indeed. i want to give you perspective as to where this is happening in portage, wisconsin. what you're looking at in google earth is the wisconsin river as it makes its bend to the south. the area of concern is where this red line is. that is the levee which is over 100 years old and you know, not well built in all accounts. this is the area that has been flooding and there have been spots where the levee has failed but there has not been a complete failure as of yet. a complete failure would certainly flood the area more and the people that you heard from would not be happy about that. so these are the counties under flood watches and warnings as these rivers continue to be in flood stage. most have crested. that's good news. but a lot of them including the wisconsin river will be in flood stage for the next couple of days that will put stress on the weakened levees.

on the east coast we have flood watches for rains that will reach similar numbers, macon, georgia, over four inch, the carolinas up through the mid-atlantic today will see heavy rain, really the next couple of days. pretty potent, very wet and at times windy storm system will batter the east coast i think for the next 36 hours. so everybody getting a piece of this. much more on that and the tropics later on in the program. >> all right. rob, thanks so much. >> the first of three rescue capsules at the mine in chile to reach 33 men trapped for two months. they contain air, a microphone for communication and equipment to monitor the heart rate and breathing as they are raised to the surface. engineers in charge say they think they could reach the men by early november. >> frightening moments for passengers on board a delta airlines flight from atlanta to new york this weekend t. pilot forced to make an emergency landing at jfk airport because the plane's landing gear was stuck. earlier we talked to two

passengers who caught it on tape. >> stay down. heads down. stay down. [ cheering ] >> you saw the sparks flying, the 3,000 gallons of fuel inside as the wing tip scraped the runway. you heard the entire plane erupt in cheers after they realize all 64 were okay. no one was hurt. >> you talked to the fellow who took that video this morning. was he keeping his head down? >> he claims he kept his head down but his hand up using his cell phone to record the moment. >> i was wondering when we would get a shot from inside of a plane with an emergency like that. now to the pentagon's reaction to an army officer's memoir on an undercover operation. the pentagon bought the first 9500 copies of an army reservist's book on afghanistan. it was destroyed, labeled a threat to national security.

>> the defense department claims that operation dark heart was destroyed to protect state secrets. it says that classified information is revealed in that book. barbara starr joins us live with more on this unusual move on the part of the defense department. >> to say the least. government sanctioned book destruction, that is not something we heard about t. pentagon did move to destroy nearly 10,000 copies of this book you see here, this is "operation dark heart." by lieutenant colonel anthony schaeffer, a military intelligence officer. they destroyed 10,000 copies of the first run, this is now the second run. if you wanted to go out and buy this book, this is what you would see. blacked out portions, page after page where the pentagon made sure in its view classified information was no longer revealed in this book. what happened here is the pentagon says that they looked at the manuscript and saw things in there that they believe very

strongly to be classified. they had to then have the first version destroyed, the second version now is blacked out. some of the information very sensitive but some of it by all accounts fairly innocuous according to "the new york times," one of the secrets that was blacked out was the name camp perry. camp perry is the cia training facility in virginia, that's something you can look up on the internet. lieutenant colonel schaeffer talked a little about what he's been facing with this manuscript. >> there are some things that the army felt they did not want in it. i took them out. there was no argument. if they felt it was sensitive it's out. then that process was completed by january of this year. from there after i received written permission, the written documents went to the publisher and we moved forward. >> how did all of this happen? schaeffer says that he did follow the rules which required him to get the manuscript reviewed by the military, he got

a thumbs up. by all accounts once it reached the higher levels of military intelligence at the pentagon, they looked at it and said no, there were still problems with the manuscript. that information had to come out and be blacked out in subsequent printings. >> the pentagon as we said at the beginning of this bought a lot of copies of the book and destroyed them. maybe they didn't get them all. are they concerned that maybe there's one of the originals out there in circulation? >> yeah, i think there's plenty of concern about that. we chatted about that before. in today's cyber age there is no such thing as permanently destroying information or knowledge, and there is a very good possibility that some of that information is still circulating out there on the internet, plenty of people still looking to buy one of those first run editions. >> when you look on the ipad you can buy books on this of course, it's the second edition and explains why. it is interesting that you know, it actually went to print before

the pentagon caught onto it and then they ended up having to take the books back and destroy them. >> absolutely. and that is something that we've checked and we haven't found any recent cases at least of government sanctioned book destruction. >> barbara starr, thanks. don't mess with the momma grizzlies, the rise of high profile political moms, part of the tea party movement. is at coherent set of ideas or a marketing tool? we'll talk about it coming up. i'm ahmed mady and i'm a homebuilder. my father brought me up to give back to society... felicia jackson promised her latsister that she would take care of her children. but she needed help. i used my american express open card to get half a million points to buy building materials to help build the jackson family a new home. well, i know if my dad was still around, he would have told me, with no doubt... he would have told me it's a no brainer and i knew that from the start.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. 12 minutes past the hour. in the few months since sarah palin launched her mama grizzlies campaign high profile victories by christine o'donnell, nikki haley and sharron angle in nevada in primaries led some to call this the year of the republican woman. who are the mama grizzlies and how are they defining this

election and their stance on issues? take a quick look at the ad that started it all. >> it seems like it's kind of a mom awakening in the last year and a half. where women are rising up and saying no, we've had enough already because moms kind of just know when something's wrong. >> lisa miller wrote this week's "newsweek" cover story on mama grizzlies, hear them growl. thanks so much. >> i'm happy to be here. >> it's interesting when we saw the ad out there, it looks, well-produced political ad. you almost think she was running for something but sort of been the king maker, not the king herself. >> right. or the grizzly maker. >> the queen maker. explain what she's tryingget across with this mama grizzly phenomenon. >> she is anointing female republican candidates who stand for what she stands for and this anti-establishment, small government, no taxes approach to, you know, saying

everything's wrong in washington. >> what is the imagery you conjure up when you say grizzly. it's maternal. saying we're women, we're moms, we know when there is something wrong with america and we're going to fight back because we're going to do everything we can to protect our cubs. it's this anti-establishment fury rooted in the maternal instinct, in the women's instinct. >> it's interesting when you look at some of the candidates she refers to, they aren't necessarily all on the same page with each other. >> that's right. >> when it comes to some of these issues. is this a coherent set of ideas or a marketing tool? >> i mean, i would say and we say at the end of the story it is really more of a marketing tool. it's a very compelling image, everybody who is a parent has that feeling of wanting to protect their kids. if we make it america's kids or our kids, our future, it's a very powerful image. on the other hand, christine o'donnell isn't a mom so she talks about our grandchildren in

speeches but she's not actually a mama grizzly. then on things like education, the grizzlies are all over the place. sarah palin is quite progressive on education. she has always talked about paying teachers more, in alaska she ramped up the budget for the department of education over and over again before she left. the position of governor of alaska. she promised a big infusion of money to the schools. whereas, you know, angle and batchman are known for hating the teachers union, fighting back, all of them, many have this anti-department of education position. you know, parents know what's good for kids and administrators and bureaucrats should get out. >> because you're against the department of ed doesn't mean you're not for kids getting a better education. >> i guess that's true. on the other hand a lot of them voted for -- against things like head start, programs for poor kids, pell grants which are to help poor kids get college educations. >> this is the interesting part.

i guess if you strip away the core message of the tea party candidates which sarah palin helped endorse they want less government. >> right. >> less spending. that unfortunately at times butts up against things many say would be good for kids. we have michelle balkman and mickey haley against the state children's health insurance program that provides health care to poor children. >> right. all of the candidates that we -- whose records we looked at are against the obama health plan in general, the chip program in specific. there are rising numbers of poor children in this country, a quarter of america's children are poor. it seems like a funny way to say that you're for kids and be against all of these programs. >> the other issue you talked about is the voting against was it angle who voted no on a domestic violence bill. >> yes. and bachman voted against parental leave policy for federal employees, so when you have a new baby, time off. that seems like a good thing for

kids. >> is there a democratic equivalent to the mama grizzly phenomenon on the other side? >> i think you know, you could call hillary clinton a mama grizzly. she is a powerful woman, a mom. i don't think she would call herself a mama grizzly. she doesn't fit into this demographic. >> an interesting line at the end of the article that said in the wild remama grizzlies were known to be aggressive, irrational and mean t. issues facing the country are complex and bears are not. what is the upshot of this? >> i think you know, it's a great marketing tool as we said at the outset. calling on women's primal maternal instincts is a good thing. this is a very divided country and we have big problems to solve. do we want bears to solve our problems? >> it's some people looking for a job will say hey, i'll take anything. but you bring up a lot of good points. lisa miller, senior editor at "newsweek." >> happy to be here. >> ever run face-to-face with a grizzly it can be anything it wants to be.

airline fees increasing, some by more than 50%. our christine romans back from maternity leave and she joins us to break it down next. and breaking news, two airlines joining forces, southwest is buying air tran. how this will affect your air travel coming up next. you want some fiber one honey clusters? yeah. you must really care about him. what? no, no. you gave him fiber. no she didn't. this tastes way too good to be fiber. they're delicious crunchy clusters with sweet honey

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♪ 21 minutes after the hour. time for "minding your business" and this morning we're all about the baby business. our own christine romans is back. >> welcome back. >> better all together. that's our song. >> christine romans is here and we want to show you a picture of her new addition to her family. this is edward alpha. >> my oldest and my youngest. the middle guy he is his own soldier.

doesn't like to sit in the pictures. >> the poor middle child. >> chubby cheeks. >> he is a little porker. he's a healthy happy little porker. >> he was born july 11, that's when you left. you look fantastic. >> did i miss anything? >> not much. >> we're out of the recession. >> yeah. so they say. >> we were out of it last year. >> it feels like before. so did i miss like the airline stopped charging fees while i was gone? >> they are actually paying you to -- it's a different world. >> i know. no. i looked at the "usa today" announcement of airline fees and believe it or not there are some airlines charging 50% more fee, believe it or not. >> making a ton of money. >> some $2.1 billion in the second quarter. some of the biggest fees that you have. america has the highest change ticket fee, $300 to change a coach ticket. us airways the highest fee to charge you to talk to a human being, $35 to make a phone

reservation. united the biggest to cut the line, to go ahead, that's $39. and united holds the record for the preferred feet for 5 inches $159. $39 an inch. >> is that worth a chunk? >> just sit up higher. >> another airline, southwest airlines wants to buy air tran. if you are a frequent flyer on either of those carriers, there is a deal there t. southwest ceo says this will take southwest to expand into airports like atlanta, d.c., baltimore, boston, new york city, if you live in those areas, you could be seeing changes. it's not a done deal. both boards have to approve it. the government has to weigh in but that's the deal we're talking about this morning and air tran stock if you are a shareholder, up sharply this morning. >> here is a question i have. i'm constantly traveling between new york and atlanta. air tran's fares pretty much track delta, now american has gotten into the business as well. does this mean the fares will change? southwest typically is a lot

less. >> usually the acquiring company is the company that sets the standard and is able to impose what it wants. if it looks like southwest wants these you could see the baggage fee policy, southwest does not charge baggage fee. you could see policies take over. there will be a call later. we're going to ask do air tran customers, do they get the southwest fees and fares or how does that work. >> none of this is your concern because you have a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 2-month-old. you never fly again unless you charter a plane. >> take the minivan, please. >> you'll be driving to florida for the next vacation. >> there you go. >> i know someone who works for air tran as well as a flight attendant. i'd be interested to know. >> they call it synergy, what overlap or whether they are just getting an add-on deal. that will come out later today. >> we can't let you go without the romans numeral.

the number driving. >> 23 million every stinking day. >> how much airlines lose? >> how much they get out of our pockets for fees. >> at least they aren't losing money. >> they still are. >> they are losing money and taking $23 million every stinking day out of our pocket. no, this is the way it's going to be. we get a lot of mail, you despise these fees, this model i predict is here to say. >> it's the way it is. >> welcome back. >> cha-ching. >> we'll see you bright and early tomorrow. >> you sure will. >> thanks, christine t. recession may be over but where are the joobs? you think president obama's policies made the economy better? >> and oscar winning filmmaker new documentary "waiting for super man" follows five children and their family as they try to get a quality education. lessons learned, america's educational system is in desperate need of rescue.

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it's 28 minutes past the hour. time for a check of our top stories. the river is rising in wisconsin. a levee in real danger of total failure this morning. basements and living rooms filling with water after a foot of rain last week. 150 residents in portage, wisconsin were told to leave yesterday. those who did not are cut off. >> the feds are reportedly seeking new regulations for internet wire taps. "the new york times" reporting today law enforcement and national security officials claim their ability to wire tap

suspects is, quote, going dark as people communicate more online than by telephone. they want congress to require all services that enable communications including social networking sites to be technically capable of complying if served with a wire tap order. >> the obama -- president obama starting the week focusing on education. earlier he spoke to matt lauer whether america can spend its way out of the crisis that has many schools across the country now facing. >> money plays a factor and obviously there's some schools where money plays a big factor. they don't have up to date text books, they don't have computers in the classroom. so those who say money makes no difference are wrong. on the other hand, money without reform will not fix the problem. and what we've got to do is combine a very vigorous reform agenda that increases standards, helps make sure that we've got the best possible teachers in the classroom, make sure that we're clearing away some of the

bureaucrat underbrush preventing kids from learning, combine that with deploying resources. >> president obama will hold a conference call with college students to discuss issues facing young americans. >> and president obama topping this cnn political ticker, hitting the campaign trail and he's not alone. candidates have been tapping heavy hitters in this home stretch. >> mark preston live at the cnn politics desk this morning. hey, mark. >> you know, look. you know we're heading into a very contentious midterm election year when all of the politicians are leaving washington, out on the campaign trail. president obama headlines the first of four major rallies on tuesday in madison, wisconsin, these are major campaign stops designed to try to rally the troops, try to get supporters who endorsed him in 2008 to come out and support congressional democrats. he's not the only one out there. this morning joe biden, the vice president, is in new hampshire

doing a campaign events for carol shea porter. haley barbour, the head of the republican governors association is in new hampshire doing an events for the governor's nominee up there t republican nominee, john stevens. through the rest of the week, mitt romney in florida for rick scott who you spoke to earlier. mike pence is in iowa, speaking before a republican conservative group. tim po lentsy sin new hampshire, another republican doing work for john steven. vice president al gore is on the campaign trail. we'll see him in florida. putting all of those together let's pull the republicans out of that one. at least four republican candidates for president in 2012, or folks looking at it on the campaign trail in the next week. let's take a look at why republicans might have a shot at taking back the house of representatives, perhaps even the senate. it really comes down to the economy.

in this new poll we asked the question, is the economy still in a recession? astounding 74% said yes, while 25% said no. you know, this goes counter to what the national bureau of economic research said earlier this month when they said the recession ended in june of 2009. well, as president obama acknowledged last week, a lots of people are hurting, they still think the reegcession is around. what's damaging for president obama, have his policies made the economy better, only 36% of americans said they made them better. 61% say they haven't so very damming. let's close it in florida. charlie crist, the republican turned independent, the popular governor is losing ground in a new mason dixon show. charlie crist is bleeding voters to charlie meek and marco rubio. he got a boost when robert

wexler endorsed him but the mason dixon analysis says that rubio, the republican can pick up more point this is race will be wrapped up. we're a little more than a month out. a lot can happen but florida is in the spotlight. >> so what's causing the bleeding? any idea? >> you know, a lot of folks said after the primary in august that kendrick meek would pull away some of the democratic voters and marco rubio pull independents his way and that's what we're seeing. >> as i understand he was charlie crist, was doing well in the wake of the oil spill for keeping it out there and trying to show leadership in a crisis. >> he was, kiran. he was acting very governor torial. he was acting like a lead are but now it's all about campaigning. and republicans are very upset that charlie crist left his party so he's bleeding them and democrats, not going to support somebody who was a republican at one time. >> all right. mark preston, great to talk to you. thanks. by the way, you can check out the latest political news going

to cnnpolitics.com. >> filmmaker david guggenheim has a documentary out, "waiting for super man." they try to get a quality education. lessons learned, america's education system is in desperate need of a rescue. davis joins us coming up. right . or eat green giant beans at home... ...frozen within 8 hours to lock in nutrients. up to you. [ green giant ] ho ho ho ♪ green giant.

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♪ 37 minutes after the hour. the director of the documentary "an inconvenient truth" is without a new film titled "waiting for superman." it's an unflattering look at the state of america's schools. for many getting an education is like winning the lottery. >> i want moo i kids to have better than what i had. to stay back one grade that was in the second grade. because my father had passed. it's bittersweet to me if i get

it, they give me a better chance in life. if i don't i just -- i just be with my friends. >> you see the cages up here. it's a random selection. you all have your numbers. >> let's get started. >> very powerful stuff t. director of "waiting for superman" davis guggenheim. anthony is trying to get into the seed charter school in washington, d.c. it's one of the only boarding schools in the country funded with public money. he doesn't get in the lottery. you see his hopes for a good education kind of dashed in front of him. it's heartbreaking to watch this. >> it's heartbreaking because when you meet these kids, and i follow five kids from different economic, there is a white middle class girl named emily in northern california and she cares as much, too. there are families who want a great school. and they shouldn't have to play bingo with their future.

>> talk about emily in a second. she really represents a side of education that people might not know too much about. first of all, a broad brush stroke. you spent a couple of years researching this film, putting it all together. what's the general state of education in america? there's some very good school districts. others are terrible. >> there are some wonderful schools and teachers and great -- teachers in failing schools doing a great job. great teachers everywhere. overall we're failing millions of kids. and it's not just a problem over there. it's not just a problem in the poor neighborhoods which is i think a lot of people feel. it's now in middle class schools, and the failure is hidden throughout. but we have more than a million 200,000 kids dropping out. that's people walking the streets without a high school diploma. now you need a college diploma. it's not just hurting kids, it's hurting our economy, it's hurting our neighborhoods, this is a wake-up call. people are going to see the movie to say it's time to make

change. >> even some good schools are failing kids. you tracked emily, she's one of the five. she lives in silicon valley, the average home price is about $1 million, going to a very good school that has a golf team. yet the school does something called tracking. and she believes that she's not going to be able to get into college because of this tracking. >> so, a lot of families don't know that there's tracking in these schools. it happens in middle school where they put you on a track. if you're on the upper track you're fine. the school is built to put the 10% or 15% of kids to college. but it masks the failure of kids below, 75% of those kids are not on that track, not built to go to college. so even in these big and quote-unquote successful suburban schools the schools are not teaching every kid. it's a real problem because we need college graduates for a great economy. >> so the solution for these kids is to try to get into charter schools because they believe that they are doing

better at charter schools at educating than in public schools. i came out of the film, the alternate title could have been in praise of charter schools. no. i wanted the lottery to be a metaphor. why is it that you have to win something to find a great school? there are charters that -- there are many charters that are failing. >> we've got figures here. these come from stamford university. 17% of charter schools found to be better. 37% were significantly worse, 46% the same. while there are some great charter schools and the ones you highlight in the documentary are fabulous, doing an amazing job of teaching kids that were thought by the system to be unteachable. it's not a panacea. >> no. i use that exact study in the movie. i say one in five charters are doing really, really well. and the really bad charters can and should be shut down. but the high performing ones, the ones in the movie, they are -- i use the example of breaking the sound barrier. they are going into

neighborhoods, even the toughest where parents are busy and worse, and they are bringing 90% of the kids and bringing them to college. they have the ingredients, like the incubators for new ideas. those we need in every school. >> it's thought that it's as much parenting and the social situation that students come from that determines whether or not they'll be able to learn as a student. you look at anthony, his father was a crack addict. died. he's growing up with his grandparents who do want the best for him but he's trying to be a really good student. >> and that's what i found. i go in these homes, you don't know when you go to east l.a. or anthony's neighborhood what you find. you find parents that are just like me. they want a great education for their kids and the kids have huge dreams and we are failing them. >> so what's the broader solution here? because as you said, there are some charter schools that are good, some charter schools that are bad and should be closed down. you can't change the public education system overnight in

this country. and you would like to get us back to you state in the begin requesting of the film how great the public school system used to be in america. what's the overall solution? >> the first thing is go see the movie. the people come together, they learn about why we are where we are, it's a wake-up call. and then you see the movie, you go to our website "waiting for superman."com. it gives you steps that you can take. you can work on a local level helping a kid, mentoring, or you can be involved in fixing the system. sticking your head in the sand like i used to do, i sent my kids to private school, i would drive by these schools. >> how do you reconcile those. here you do a documentary about the state of public schools in america and you're sending your kids to private school. >> you know, because the schools have been a problem for so long i think people have been taking care of themselves. parents like me stick their head in the sand. >> was your head in the sand? >> i was part of the problem. my head was deep in the sand. in may my wife and i walked into our local school, met our principal and said how can we

help. how can we become good neighbors. and maybe in a couple years my youngest kid will go to that school. the idea is we all have to fight for a great school in every neighborhood for every kid. if you go to our website waitingforsuperman.com you see the movie you become part of the solution. >> we should say the film is not without controversy. teachers unions are coming down pretty hard as are some other folks. >> the controversy is fine. i don't mind taking some hits. but i want, i think people should listen for who is fighting for the status quo. because keeping the schools the way they are, no one is saying they are working. if there is an argument about it let's make it toward making better schools as opposed to keeping things the way they have been. >> it's a thought provoking documentary as you have become known for. so, congratulations on getting it out there and we'll continue to follow it. >> it's wonderful being on your show. >> davis guggenheim, great to talk to you. >> still ahead we're talking

about extreme weather. there is flooding in the midwest. concerns about a total levee failure in wisconsin, plus storms moving throughout the eastern part of the country. our rob marciano joins us with all of the latest weather in a moment. i'm ahmed mady and i'm a homebuilder. my father brought me up to give back to society... felicia jackson promised her late sister that she would take care of her children. but she needed help. i used my american express open card to get half a million points to buy building materials to help build the jackson family a new home. well, i know if my dad was still around, he would have told me, with no doubt... he would have told me it's a no brainer and i knew that from the start. it was an honor. booming is moving forward by giving back.

fire was fire. and the first language, the language of chemistry, was universal and eloquent. and the unique ability of chemistry to change everything has never changed. it is still the hope of human history to come.

it is still the bond in partial between the elements. hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and human. i just wish that all of the important information was gathered together in one place. [ printer whirs ] done. ♪ thanks. do you work here? not yet. from tax info to debunking myths, the field guide to evolving your workforce has everything you need. download it now at thinkbeyondthelabel.com. flooding in portage, wisconsin, this is the wisconsin river, at record levels. more so than 1993 but localized south of town, this is a neighborhood about 100 homes

affected. evacuation is in order. those that didn't evacuate are stranded and the problem with this levee is parts of it have already failed and the pressure continues as the flood stage is not expected to, well, the flooding is not expected to be relieved until the next couple of days. here's where your flooding in, including parts of minnesota. here is where the crest is, over 20 feet yesterday, slow recession, receding of the river to below flood stage. that's not going to happen until probably wednesday. so they got two days where the pressure is going to be on the levee, very old levees to hold. we've got a lot of rain from the florida panhandle up through the carolinas. some of this is going to be heavy. we have flood watches in effect here, some cases flood warnings, 2 to 4 inches of rain on top of what has fallen as this pretty moist system slowly makes its way up the east coast. macon yesterday saw 4.25 inches of rain. fay yetville saw three inches.

there is more rain coming. the week itself looks to be relatively wet here, not only for parts of the carolinas but up flew the northeast also as storms kind of ride the jet stream which is going to be stuck right through here. pretty hot across parts of the west coast today. and yesterday. check out some of these record highs. indio, california, 113 there, palm springs, 111. it's going to be hot again across parts of los angeles because of that fire danger is going to be pretty high. be aware of that. tropical moisture, this is what's leftover of matthew. and then we've got another area of disturbed weather that may develop and drift up toward florida. so we're watching these two areas over the next few days for a tropical development. you are up to date weatherwise.

♪ isn't it though. isn't it always. >> a little manic outside, a lot of rain coming down in new york. so, if you're traveling, better

check with your airline. >> a lot going on including the midwestern part of the country as well. wisconsin taking a hit. meantime it's 52 past the hour. stories about your health in our am house call. more parents are hiring personal trainers to get their kids moving. some are hitting the gym as early as 3 years old. parents are paying as much as $75 an hour for these sessions. fitness experts say many of the exercises are modified for children to adjust to their developing bodies or make them more fun. >> people are hiring personal trainers for young kids? >> feed them less, take them to the park. >> did you need a personal trainer? >> no. >> maybe get out and enjoy yourself. >> what is the world coming to the young kidses need a personal trainer to get exercise. >> i thought it was weird when they did the doggies on the treadmill. >> that's a whole other thing. i'll never understand. 53 1/2 minutes after the hour.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. you think of missionaries you probably think of people working in third world countries. >> in this troubled economy the need for domestic missionaries is growing. one man whose mission is to rally black americans to serve their own communities. >> i'm the jackie robinson of missions, you know. >> reporter: leroy barber is a man with a calling and he's the president of mission year. >> we do not see through our eyes or hear through our ears. >> reporter: it's a year-long ministry and volunteer program for christian young adults in the united states. >> there is a goal for people to do you mean know jesus. there is probably another strong

goal of things are not right in the world and i want to be part of making that right. >> how many african-americans are involved in mission year's work. >> about 5% a year or less sometimes. >> what does it matter? >> don't think it's good for grewing up in an urban neighborhood to only see white faces coming to serve. >> this is where i'm staying. >> harold boyd left his chicago home to spend the year in atlanta, he lives on $12,000 that he has to raise himself. >> i do believe that with every relationship that i build that i'll be showing people that i'm in the same struggle as you are. >> i don't have all of the answers. >> he is the only minority on the team. it's not surprising when you consider the vast majority of missionaries are white. >> in terms of the mission area percentage of african-americans it's less, far less than 1%. >> reporter: jim studies

missionary work and the black church. >> many black churches are -- do a fairly good job of taking care of their own local communities but the vocation of missionary in the african-american church is off the radar. it's not there. >> why are there so few african-americans involved in missionary work? >> i think the way missions is traditionally done, you raise support to do it and -- >> money. >> money. how you work out. taking a year off which means not working, not earning an income. >> reporter: for many african-americans it's difficult to make this enormous financial sacrifice especially during a recession. for harold boyd it's worth the sacrifice. >> what really inspired me is the work of missions of being able to see what's out there and see what people need, here, here, have it. but i'm called to se